(05-21-2016 03:34 AM)Phoenix Wrote: No surprise at all. Businesses get their power by doing. Regulators get their power by stopping. Basic pro-social versus anti-social.

The best additional amendment would've been a "separation of economy and state" amendment.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of business, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;...". Without that, it's the same old same old. Bribe or flee.

You left out the third element, money. Taxi/Livery groups are behind all of this. So much for getting around easy. People are too stupid to make their own choices.

(05-21-2016 03:34 AM)Phoenix Wrote: No surprise at all. Businesses get their power by doing. Regulators get their power by stopping. Basic pro-social versus anti-social.

The best additional amendment would've been a "separation of economy and state" amendment.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of business, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;...". Without that, it's the same old same old. Bribe or flee.

Completely agree. If the Federal government was forced out of business, while State governments are allowed to do as they please, much economic damage could be contained to individual states or states with better systems will thrive in the long run.

Instead of fighting each other for a national policy, we could instead each have our own policies in separate regions of the USA. Liberal areas could get their safety net and conservative areas can rely on themselves in exchange for more of their paycheck.

An interesting new twist in the employee vs contractor disputes already in play, if drivers are employees, Uber and Lyft violates federal law regarding mass layoffs. This has resulted in drivers in Austin filing suit similar to suits elsewhere.http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/...print-law/

"Nothing comes easier than madness in the world today
Mass paranoia is a mode not a malady"
Bad Religion - The Defense

If you look on that page, in 2012 a self driving car located a passenger and drove him to a destination across the hilly and hectic roads of SF.

That doesn't sound like 50 years away. It sounds like it will hit the stores as soon as product management works out the production scheme, provided regulations, market timing and so forth are in order. It only takes one city, and they will become very safe very fast. Even if self driving cars have to operate in some third world shit hole to get the experience they'll do it. Once they are safe expect normal driving to be phased out completely due to much lower costs: 20-30 years.

Driving is a repetitive and simple task, perfect for automation. It is true that AI has not had the kind of break through many have expected... But you don't need human level AI. You just need to be able to drive. Even dogs can do it: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BWAK0J8Uhzk

It is only a surprise that it has taken this long to get automated cars.

If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.

(06-11-2016 12:08 PM)storm Wrote: Driving is a repetitive and simple task, perfect for automation. It is true that AI has not had the kind of break through many have expected... But you don't need human level AI. You just need to be able to drive. Even dogs can do it: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BWAK0J8Uhzk

It is only a surprise that it has taken this long to get automated cars.

On the surface you are correct but you are missing the mark here.

Have you ever driven in towns and cities outside of the US? US roads are in grids and can be easy to navigate with plenty of space.

European, Asian & British towns and cities are the complete opposite and have a hell of a lot more obstacles and other issues to deal with.

Google maps does not find the location everytime and in fact I've had a few experiences where it tried to take me to a place I didn't want to be. Same goes for Apple maps.

- What happens if the car pulls up to a taxi rank? Its not a taxi is it
- What happens if emergency services are racing up towards you?
- How will it work in permit areas and where wardens are operating? Does it visualise permit and time restricted parking?

- If the car gets a ticket the owner of the vehicle gets it I assume but no human is liable for it except setting the parameters.

You could open yourself up as a manufacturer to legal issues when people start complaining about fines and penalties as a result of self-driving cars.

Cruise control is a good example. Some idiot in America put his camper van on cruise control and went for a shit...whilst on the highway. He sued the manufacturer citing how they didn't warn him it doesn't drive but merely goes in a straight line.

Also; driving isn't boring, its a skill. Most people are shitty drivers.

Then they should spend the 2 minutes it takes to research/download Fasten and/or Ride Austin. Cheap rides, worked just as well as Uber/Lyft, no problems.

Nobody wants to download an app for every single city they visit. I visited a couple cities where I had to do that. Not everyone has the space for it on the phone. I am generally partial toward small local companies myself--not this case though.

I never updated this. The state legislature sometime in 2017 or early 2018 overruled Austin. We have Uber and Lyft back now. They basically adopted a state-wide regulatory system, which overruled all the cities.